My only regret with FFIX was the lack of further combination skills like Steiner's/Vivi's Magic Blade attacks (well, that and the hideously slow loading, the minute long combat camera panning shenanigans, the fourth disk lockdown, Tetra Master, Trance shenanigans and its similarities to that particular show featuring monkey boys getting similar powerups, the lack of development for Armarant, and Freya, and a lack of playable Beatrix I guess). I mean, you could've had Garnet and Eiko pull off dual summons like they did for Alexander, or Zidane and Armarant pull off some sort of rivalry combo, or Freya and Quina could umm, well Freya could always stir the Gourmad's Trance pot.

My only regret with FFIX was the lack of further combination skills like Steiner's/Vivi's Magic Blade attacks (well, that and the hideously slow loading, the minute long combat camera panning shenanigans,

Eh, I played it to the end again last year and didn't find the loading times to be that bad. It might not be as snappy as current gen, but I don't recall it being frustrating/annoying.

I forced myself to use Freya, and she was pretty terrible iirc. Still was fun though.

Amarant has a backstory but mainly the player sees him being confused by Zidane's attitude.

That's mostly because his back story consists almost entirely of that one scene where he's an unlucky guard who gets framed by Zidane. It was his sole character trait that defined him as a brooding loner who's struggling to understand his sworn rival's strength and way of life so that he may defeat him at a later date.

Hell, to continue with the DBZ allusions, Amarant was basically the Piccolo to Zidane's Goku (right down to the green skin). Disgruntled rival who's looking for a rematch but is thwarted by the reasons of lacking main character status and getting replaced by a newer/shinier rival/buttmonkey.